Jewish Capital As the Factor Shaping the City's Architecture. Selected Examples of Industrial Urban Development of Piotrków T

West Bohemian Historical Review X | 2020 | 1

Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s Architecture. Selected Examples of Industrial Urban Development of Piotrków Trybunalski in the Second Half of the 19th Century (up to 1914)

Irmina Gadowska – Magdalena Milerowska*

Currently, Piotrków Trybunalski is one of many medium-sized towns on the map of Poland, yet at the end of the 19th century was the fifth largest in the Polish Kingdom, second only to Warsaw, Łódź, Lublin, and Częstochowa. The city was the seat of governorate authorities, the tax chamber, as well as the Warsaw-Vienna railway station. Until the outbreak of World War II, Poles, Germans, Russians, and Jews living next to each other gave the city its multicultural character. This paper attempts to characterize the economic activity of Jews and their role in trade and the process of industrialization of Piotrków. Selected examples of industrial buildings erected on the initiative of this mentioned group were also analysed. [Piotrków Trybunalski; Jewish Architecture; 19th Century Architecture; History of Poland]

Introduction Piotrków Trybunalski is situated in central Poland – in the middle of Lodz Uplands, on the Strawa River, the left-bank tributary of Luciąża River. It is known that as early as in the 11th century there was a trade route passing through in the vicinity of the present-day city, however, the earliest of the known records of Piotrków as a town date back to as late as 1313.1 Municipal charter granted to Piotrków was confirmed by the king

* Institute of Art History, University of Łódź, Narutowicza 65, 90–131 Łódź; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]. 1 In civitate nostra Petricouiensi – was written in a document that granted privileges to Sulejów monastery on 16 October 1313. It is assumed that Piotrków was granted municipal charter before 1292, for it was then that the charter was granted to Sulejów,

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Władysław Jagiełło in 1404.2 In the following centuries, the town played an important role in the history of Poland. From the Middle Ages to the early modern period Piotrków was the seat of kings and dukes, the location of general meetings of the Polish Sejm as well as the residence of the Crown Tribunal for many years.3 Following the Third Partition of Poland,4 Piotrków was, under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland which was in personal union with the Russian Empire. In the second half of the 19th century, the popular periodical Tygodnik Ilustrowany (The Illustrated Weekly) said: “It is said that that anyone who has at least some knowledge about national events should know something about Piotrków Trybunalski.”5 The exclusion of the city from the government plans of creating the textile industrial district, which concerned Kalisz and Masovian Voivode- ships, was a significant factor determining the demographic structure and the direction of the city development in the first half of the 19th century. Highly qualified craftsmen brought from Germany avoided Piotrków

the city of a lower rank. T. NOWAKOWSKI, Piotrków w dziejach polskiego parlamentary- zmu, Piotrków Trybunalski 2005, p. 3. 2 The original document is in the Research Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Science (PAU) and the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Kraków, ref.16. It was released by the king Władysław Jagiełło, on 8th June 1404 and it locates Piotrków on German law. After 600 years, the document was displayed in the Piotrków Trybunalski Castle on 6th–8th June. M. GĄSIOR, Najstarsze dokumenty miasta Piotrkowa. Katalog wystawy z okazji 600-lecia nadania miastu prawa magdeburskiego 1404–2004, Piotrków Trybunalski 2004, p. 4. 3 Piotrków, as the seat of the Tribunal, was at the end of the 18th century one of the most economically resilient cities in the central part of Poland. It performed the function from 1578. During the sessions of the Crown Tribunal it became the place of general reunions of Polish nobility. It had a positive impact on the further development of the city. B. BARANOWSKI, Ziemia piotrkowska do końca XVIII w., in: B. BARANOWSKI (ed.), Województwo piotrkowskie. Monografia regionalna. Zarys dziejów, obraz współczesny, perspektywy rozwoju, Łódź, Piotrków Trybunalski 1979, pp. 93–94. 4 In the time between 1772 and 1795 three partitions of Poland took place, which resulted in the division of the Commonwealth lands among Austria, Prussia and Russia. Thereby Poland, an independent country, disappeared from the map of Europe for 123 years. At first Piotrków Trybunalski belonged to the Prussian Partition (from 1793 on), afterwards it became a part of the Duchy of Warsaw (from 1807 on), to finally become incorporated into the Russian Partition as the city of the Kingdom of Poland (from 1815 on). About the situation of Poland after partitions, cf. A. CHWALBA, Historia Polski 1795–1918, Kraków 2005; N. DAVIES, Boże Igrzysko. Historia Polski, Kraków 2010. 5 L. RZECZNIOWSKI, Odrzwia kamienne i futro od okna, in: Tygodnik Ilustrowany, 239, 1864, p. 152.

26 I. Gadowska – M. Milerowska, Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s architecture to settle down in Kalisz, Zgierz, Lodz, Tomaszów and in other centres along the trackway Warsaw – Kalisz. The economy of the city was shaped first and foremost by Polish and Jews. The latter ones were engaged in commerce and craft. In 1848 there was a Warsaw-Vienna railway connection established in Piotrków, which contributed to the migration of population and initiated a long-term process of development and industrialization of Piotrków. In 1867, after the administrative reform of the Kingdom of Poland, the town became the main centre of one of the ten governorates with the seat of the governorate authorities, the governor’s office, the revenue board, the circuit court as well as magistrates’ court of many other institutions. The change of status was another, apart from the establishment of the railway connection, contributor to the development of Piotrków in the second half of the 19th century. According to the census, in the years 1871–1882 the population rose from 14,680 to 20,086, out of which Jews constituted 57,5% in 1882.6 Towards the end of the century the city was the fifth biggest urban center in the Polish Kingdom, after Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin and Częstochowa. In the last decades of the century Piotrków underwent a remarkable transformation. The formerly dominant wooden housing was replaced by the one built of brick, squares were established, streets were paved, paraffin lighting, later replaced by gas lighting appeared. In the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland the following description can be found: “In P. [Piotrków] there are 9 squares, six of which are paved, 45 streets, most of which are also paved, mainly with asphaltic pavements […] two public gardens and many private ones, in which there are around 1100 fruit trees […] Wooden buildings are situated solely in the suburbs; they are exceptionally rare in the town. […] Among the large buildings, catholic churches, in the number of seven, come first, there is a protestant church, an orthodox church. […] A synagogue built in 1689, […] Whoever entered the town through Sieradzka Gate, found himself in a narrow street with crookedly arranged buildings, which led to a rectangular, packed with buildings and not very big market square, in the middle of which the tribunal town hall reared up. The market square was surrounded by single-storey as well as multi-storey tenement houses.”7 The outbreak of World War I stopped hindered the growth of Piotrków. When the war finished and Poland gained independence in 1918, the town lost its significance. Its role as an economic (and political) centre

6 L. RZECZNIOWSKI., Spis jednodniowy, in: Tydzień, 26, 1882, p. 3. 7 F. SULIMIERSKI – B. CHLEBOWSKI – W. WALEWSI, Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Vol. VIII, Warszawa 1902, pp. 186, 197.

27 West Bohemian Historical Review X | 2020 | 1 in the developing Second Polish Republic was negligible despite a few still active manufacturing plants, cultural institutions and religious communities.

Jews in Piotrków Trybunalski The beginnings of Jewish settlement in Piotrków are most likely to relate to Middle Ages, however, there are no original documents left confirming the assumptions. It is all the same known that in the 16th century Jews used to live in so called Podzamcze.8 The localization behind the city walls was quite typical for a couple of reasons. The first and the most important one resulted from local restrictions, the other responded to the needs of Jewish settlers. As a rule, Jews made their homes in the vicinity of bigger trade centres, or not far from city gates. They were willing to dwell in river valleys, which were available and cheap due to the threat of flooding and at the same time complied with all requirements concerning religious rituals. The precarious situation of Jewish community in Piotrków sta- bilized as late as in the 17th century, when King Jan III Sobieski granted them the privilege of taking up residence just behind the city walls,9 which was confirmed by general edict in Jarosław in 1679.10 Since that time Piotrków’s Jews had their community, which made it easier for them to focus on the economic development of the area they inhabited. In the economy of Piotrków Trybunalski situated in central Poland, trade, which concentrated mostly in Jewish part of the city, played a significant role. Orthodox Jews from Piotrków were engaged in small-scale trading (cattle, leather, fur, cloth, iron) and home craft. They dealt with furriery and mead brewing. Besides, they granted loans, traded in grain and woods.11 Factors, who taking advantage of grand nobility reunions medi- ated with property transactions, sales, hypothecations and leases of property, and even matrimonial cases, constituted a particularly numerous

8 In many publications concerning the history of Piotrków Trybunalski the same area of the city, where Orthodox Jews lived was named Podzamcze, (bailey) Wielka Wieś (great village) or jurydyka starościńska. It should be assumed that Podzamcze means the area adjacent to the castle. 9 The privilege was granted in Jarosław on 16 March 1679. M. FEINKIND, Dzieje Żydów w Piotrkowie i okolicy od czasów najdawniejszych do chwili obecnej, Piotrków Trybunalski 1930, p. 12. 10 K. PECELT, Stosunki gospodarcze i społeczne w XVI i w pierwszej połowie XVII w., in: BARANOWSKI (ed.), Dzieje Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Łódź 1989, p. 82. 11 FEINKIND, p. 26.

28 I. Gadowska – M. Milerowska, Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s architecture group.12 Despite the attempts to combat illegal crafts, in the 17th and 18th centuries a big role was played by the so called partacze (craftsmen not belonging to the guild) from the Jewish district. Magnates and gentry were their clientele.13 There are very few records left on the activity of partacze functioning independently of guilds. They are known to have gathered in their hands a significant share of production of precision goods of differ- ent kinds. In the 18th century there was a big banking and usury center in the Jewish quarter. Even Piotrków’s kahal authorities were involved in the loan granting practice, which attracted traders from the remotest towns.14 From the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century the regulations concerning Jewish settlement in Piotrków underwent continual changes. Following the downfall of the Commonwealth Prussian government removed in 1797 and 1802 all restrictions that Jewish people living within the administrative boundaries of Piotrków had been subject to.15 Unfortunately, when in 1809 the Austrians were stationed in the city, Jewish people had to leave it again.16 In 1811 the regulation which allowed Jews to settle solely on the outskirts of Piotrków, in the village Wielka Wieś,17 and four years later the ban on purchasing houses and apartments from Christians, purchasing land, starting new inns or distilleries was imposed.18 The sanctions were supposed to stop the migration of Jewish people towards city centers. It was as late as in 1840 when, so called Miasto Żydowskie (Jewish City) and Wielka Wieś (Great Village) were officially attached do Piotrków.19 22 years later the border between them was abolished. In the mid-19th century Oskar Flatt wrote:

12 R. ROSIN, Okres od schyłku XVI w. do rozbiorów Polski, in: Z. STANKIEWICZ (ed.), Województwo piotrkowskie. Monografia regionalna. Zarys dziejów, obraz współczesny, perspektywy rozwoju, Łódź, Piotrków Trybunalski 1979, p. 94. 13 K. URZĘDOWSKI, Piotrków w okresie staropolskim w świetle akt cechowych, in: R. KOTEWICZ – R. SZWED (eds.), Archiwum i badania nad dziejami regionu fasc.1, Piotrków Trybunalski 1995, p. 51. 14 B. BARANOWSKI, Stosunki gospodarcze i społeczne w drugiej połowie XVII i XVIII w., in: BARANOWSKI (ed.), pp. 91–92. 15 J. BARANOWSKI – H. JAWOROWSKI, Historia i rozwój przestrzenny synagogi w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim, in: Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego, 57, 1966, p. 123; FEINKIND, p. 22. 16 O. FLATT, Opis Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego pod względem historycznym i statystycznym, Warszawa 1850, Piotrków Trybunalski 2014, p. 45. 17 Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD), Komisja Rządowa Spraw Wewnętrznych (KRSW) 1795–1868, Akta Miasta Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego (AMPT), Ref. 1439, p. 51. 18 BARANOWSKI – JAWOROWSKI, p. 123. 19 M. KOTER, Układ przestrzenny, in: BARANOWSKI (ed.), p. 216.

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“The history of Piotrków reflects a constant struggle between Christians and Jewish people: despite numerous decisions, resolutions and royal charters Jews forced their way into the city. The stricter edicts were issued against them, the more widely they spread in the city. They ultimately scored a triumph: nowadays they constitute half the population and they rule over all trade. Only the government’s strong will prevented Jewry, so far crammed into their quarter, from flooding the Christian city like the second flood.”20 The remaining accounts present an inconsistent image of, so called, Jewish Piotrków. Some historians, like M. Baliński and T. Lipiński perceived the Jewish quarter as a place of poverty and misery.21 Others emphasized the commercial character of the area inhabited by Jews.22 The beginning of the 19th century was very difficult for Piotrków, not only on account of political situation. The dynamics of the development evidently ground to a halt, the city was exhausted after wars, fires and epidemies. A small manufactory of Abram Zalman Rosenblau that started the production of chicory in 1815, was one of the first (and the very few) investments.23 Other Jewish companies established subsequently in the 19th century contributed to the development of not only the city, but also the industry on the territory of the Russian Partition.24 According to the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland there were 732 manufacturing and trading plants (mainly small and medium-sized) operating in Piotrków before 1882.25 In 1901 out of 680 plants paying for patents 456 belonged

20 FLATT, p. 45. 21 M. BALIŃSKI – T. LIPIŃSKI, Starożytna Polska pod względem historycznym, jeograficznym, i statystycznym, Vol. 1, Warszawa 1885, pp. 259–260. 22 FEINKIND, passim. 23 National Archives in Piotrków, the files of Piotrków, Dowody do Rachunku Kassy Eko- nomiczney Miasta Piotrkowa 1815–1816, ref. 6, p. 27 et seq; K. GŁOWACKI, Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Vol. 1, Piotrków, Kielce 1984, p. 66. 24 Among others one can mention C. Goldach’s soap store, M. Braun’s rectification plant and distillery, Joel Kagan’s machine factory and foundry, Rappaport and Eichner’s wood products factory, Inselstein’s iron foundry, Jakub Goldach’s factory of polishes and lacquers, Natan Goldlust’s first factory of weaving, Matylda Landau’s steam sawmill, Israel Goldach’s mineral water bottling plant, two brickworks, honey manufactory, distillery, two factories of tallow candles. The list based on: The National Archives in Łódź, Rząd Gubernialny w Piotrkowie, Wydział budowlany, Ref. 3485, 7231, 7375, 9330, 9626, 10154. 25 The authors of the study name among them: mill and steam sawmill, agricultural tools, 12 brickworks, 2 distilleries, 4 breweries, 2 mead breweries, a factory of vinegar, a factory of tiles, 5 oil mills. 2 factories of tallow candles, lathe workshop, 2 dyeworks, 3 tanneries, 4 soap stores, boiler manufacturing plants, 2 stocking factories, 6 wind-

30 I. Gadowska – M. Milerowska, Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s architecture to the Jews. The Jews also dominated commerce in Piotrków. At the end of the century out of 600 people engaged in commerce, there were 82% of Jews, 14% of Catholics, 4% of people of other faiths.26

Industrial Architecture Taking into consideration centuries-old history of Piotrków, one should point to geographical features, political events, epidemies, fires and religiously diverse structure of society as the major factors determining the visual character of the city. The influence of Jewish people on the transformation of the building stock of Piotrków constitutes an interest- ing, however not thoroughly explored aspect of the studies on the development of the city. As exceptionally mobile citizens with a wide variety of jobs, Jews had a profound impact on the profile of the local economy and due to their capital assets on construction traffic. The phenomenon is particularly evident after 1862, when restrictions concerning the real estate property purchase that Jewish people had been subject to were removed. In the first half of the 19th century, Jewish urban development of Piotrków concentrated in the vicinity of the castle and in the neighbouring village Wielka Wieś on the account of the restrictions. The structure of the Jewish quarter was marked by overpopulation and apparent chaos demonstrated in the irregular city plan as well as in the external appearance of the buildings (diversity of forms, non-homogeneity of building materials). Low-rise wooden buildings predominated, only the buildings of profound ritual significance, like the synagogue were made of brick. In the second half of the century, following the great fire of Piotrków in 1865, an at- tempt to regulate the plan of the quarter was made. A dozen or so urban blocks were built up with single-level and one-storey houses surrounded by wooden outbuildings. Despite endeavours, the ghetto sprawled out of control and the housing standard was extremely low. Brick houses in the city centre inhabited by wealthy Jews were built in neoclassical style, historicism style and at the turn of the 20th century in the Art Nouveau style as well. As opposed to sacral buildings (a synagogue) or secular ones associated with the functioning of Jewish community (schools, ritual

mills, a slaughterhouse, 4 bookbinderies, joinery workshops and cooper’s workshops et al. Cf. F. SULIMIERSKI – B. CHLEBOWSKI – W. WALEWSKI, Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Vol. VIII, Warszawa 1902, p. 187. 26 B. HAŁACZKIEWICZ, Działalność gospodarcza ludności żydowskiej w Piotrkowie w latach 1914–1939, in: A. PIASTA (ed.), Badania nad dziejami regionu piotrkowskiego, Fasc. 3, Piotrków Trybunalski 2002, p. 28.

31 West Bohemian Historical Review X | 2020 | 1 baths), or even housing construction (private houses) characterized by the use of specific decorative elements (e.g. orientalising detail, characteristic imagery), factory buildings were not distinguished by anything exceptional falling into the pattern of industrial architecture. Among the most important industrial buildings erected in Piotrków since the second half of the 19th century up to 191427 there were: the steam mill of Pniower brothers, ‘Anna’ Glassworks, Piotrków’s Manufacture, ‘Raymond & Joel’ iron foundry, Markus Braun’s brewery. In 1860 Izrael and Jakub Pniower started the mill equipped with a 57-horsepower steam engine.28 Situated in the vicinity of the railway station, it soon developed to be one of the most modern plants of the Kingdom of Poland.29 The fact that approximately 164,000 puds30 of flour and groats were produced there testifies to the panache of the investment. Such a significant production – having satisfied the local needs – enabled dispatching of surplus products all over the governorate territory.31 There were around 30 workers employed in the plant. The original appearance of the factory is not known. It was probably smaller in size. Its current appearance is the result of reconstruction that took place in 1912, after the firm was overtaken by the Peasant Agricultural and Trade Cooperative (Włościańska Spółdzielnia Rolniczo-Handlowa). Four-storey building was erected on the plan of the elongated rectangle. The fourteen axial front elevation is divided by regularly spaced windows. The austere façade is devoid of decorative detail. Adjacent to the building from the north side, there was a lower outhouse (two storeys high) with a doorway leading into the interior. From the east side the mill touched a four-storey tenement house facing the street.

27 All preserved to date. 28 J. KRYŃSKI, Fabryczne opowieści. Młyn, in: Tygodnik Piotrkowski, 44, 1981, p. 5. 29 In the seventies of the 19th century the mill in Piotrków belonged to the group of the 16 biggest commercial mills in the Kingdom of Poland. J. BATRYŚ, Produkcja artykułów spożywczych, in: M. DEMBIŃSKA (ed.), Historia kultury materialnej Polski w zarysie, Vol. VI, Wrocław, Warszawa, Kraków, Gdańsk 1979, pp. 238 et seq. 30 Pud is a former Russian weighing unit. 1 poodle = 16.38 kg. 31 GŁOWACKI, p. 94. In 1913 the mill caught serious fire. In the twenties the ownership of the mill passed to the company Horn, Oppenheim and Ska. In 1937 the ownership was transferred to the Peasant Agricultural and Trade Cooperative (Włościańska Spółdzielnia Rolniczo-Handlowa). In 1952 the state-owned gristmill (Państwowe Zakłady Zbożowe) took ownership of the mill. The National Archives in Piotrków Trybunalski, Akta Miasta Piotrkowa, Akta Magistratu Miasta Piotrkowa tyczące się konsensów na Procedera 1839–1869, Ref. 40, p. 1063.

32 I. Gadowska – M. Milerowska, Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s architecture

The ‘Anna’ Glassworks co-owned by Józef Schuldberg, Maurycy Tuwim and Abram Weitzman was the first bigger factory established in Piotrków in 1889. In August 1888, a short item that appeared in the Piotrków periodical Tydzień (The Week) said about the purchase of a built-up area, once belonging to the factory of potato syrup, made by the investors – co-owners of glass factories near Chełmno and Łuków mentioned before. The new factory was intended to produce crockery of high quality, ornate lampshades, etc.32 In 1905 it employed 85 workers.33 The plan from 188934 presenting one of the production halls, shows a rectangularly elongated, single-storey, brick and plastered house with a gable roof and skylights located on the entrance axis. The horizontal layout of the elevation is highlighted by the row of windows and doors. The entrances were accentuated by flat avant-corps (apparent avant-corps) with curb roofs, the windows were arranged in groups of two, separated from each other by a profiled frame. Both windows and door copings have the form of a segmental arch. There are small, oval windows over the main entrance. The first weaving factory named Piotrków Manufactory was the next important investment in the city. The beginnings of the complex situated on the eastern outskirts of the city date back to the 80s of the 19th century. In Sulejowska Street (the one going out of the city, south-easterly, towards Kielce) there were several dozen Jewish looms operating back then, which ushered in the development of the ‘Bugaj’ weaving district. The short item in the periodical Tydzień says: “Their founders are local Israeli, who overtook us in that respect as usual, setting a good example of promptness and energy.”35 Convenient location on the city outskirts, on the ground situated in the vicinity of a water reservoir, influenced the decision to locate the weaving

32 Fabryka wyrobów szklanych, in: Tydzień, 36, 1888, p. 1. 33 In 1907 the factory was taken over by E. Haebler. After the redevelopment and modernization, it operated as an ironworks “Hortensja”. J. PIETRZAK, Z dziejów przemysłu w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim(od połowy XIX do lat trzydziestych XX), in: R. ROSIN (ed.), 750 lat Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski 1969, p. 199; T. NOWA- KOWSKI, Piotrków Trybunalski i okolice, Warszawa 1972, p. 51; L. JEZIORAŃSKI, Księga adresowa przemysłu fabrycznego w Królestwie Polskim, Vol III, Warszawa 1906, dep III, item 1272; M. ZDROJEWSKI, 1889–1969. 80 lat Hortensji, in: Gazeta Ziemi Piotrkowskiej, 49, 1969; pp. 4–5; J. KRYŃSKI, Fabryczne opowieści. Pierwsza była Anna…, in: Tygodnik Piotrkowski, 28, 1981, p. 7; W. PUŚ – S. PYTLAS, Szklana Hortensja. Dzieje huty w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim, Łódź 1982, p. 12. 34 B. BARANOWSKI – K. BARANOWSKI – A. LECH (eds.), Katalog zabytków budownictwa przemysłowego w Polsce, Vol. IV, Fasc. 4, Wrocław 1971, p. 73. 35 Warsztaty tkackie, in: Tydzień,13, 1889, p. 2.

33 West Bohemian Historical Review X | 2020 | 1 plant in ‘Bugaj’ district. On 8th June 1893 ‘Frumkin & Co Piotrków Manu- factory’ co-partnership was established in the notary’s office of Karol Filipski. Naftali Frumkin, Mendel Schlosberg and Lejb Wyszniewański were the shareholders in the factory. The company bought the ground situated on the eastern outskirts of the city together with the adjacent pond. On 28th July 1894, the foundation stone for the factory was laid. Gurland, the engineer, managed the construction works, there were mostly local workers employed, only carpenters and joiners were brought from Grodno. The erection of the factory was preceded by the construction of a brickworks to provide construction material. In February 1895, a report on the progress of works appeared in Tydzień: “With the advent of spring the first large-scale steam dyeworks will be opened in our city; in May the weaving mill will start operating and at the same time the construction works on a spinning mill and a finishing plant.”36 The weaving mill building was constructed on a rectangular plan with dimensions 60 m × 42 m. It could accommodate 400 weaving stations, which were provided with additional light by two metres high windows. The factory floor was heated and ventilated and so was the neighbouring dyeworks. The weaving mill worked due to the modern, 300-horsepower, two-cylinder “Camponnd” machine, mounted in a separate room. It was also equipped in steam boilers from the factory of Fitzner and Gamper in Sosnowiec. The lightning was provided by a dynamoelectric machine. Water supply installation was located inside the building, which prevented pipes from freezing.37 In 1896 the construction works of two residential houses for workers commenced.38 These were two-storey, brick family houses, similar to the workers’ houses called “famuły” for the workers from Karol Scheibler’s factory on Księży Młyn (Pastor’s Mill) or the houses for the workers from Israel Poznański’s factory in Ogrodowa street in Lodz.39 Two years later the next two residential buildings were constructed. In 1898 “Frumkin & Co Piotrków Manufactory” converted into “Stock As- sociation of Piotrków Manufactory” (“Akcyjne Towarzystwo Piotrkowskiej Manufaktury”) with M. Schlosberg, A. Frumkin and J. Friedstein as the managing board. One million rouble loan raised from St. Petersburg Trade Bank was meant to help develop production and facilitate competition

36 Fabryki na Bugaju, in: Tydzień, 5, 1895, p. 2. 37 Fabryka na Bugaju, in: Tydzień, 6, 1896, pp. 1–2. 38 Z fabryki na Bugaju, in: Tydzień, 33, 1896, p. 2. 39 M. KOTER, Układ przestrzenny, in: BARANOWSKI (ed.), p. 222.

34 I. Gadowska – M. Milerowska, Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s architecture with manufacturing plants from Lodz.40 In 1900 a spinning mill and a finishing plant appeared next to the weaving mill and the dyeworks. The development of the mill was accompanied by an increase in employment. In 1896 there were 150 workers employed in the factory, in 1903 the number increased to as many as 442.41 Worse economic circumstances and risky financial operations conducted by the shareholders led to stagnation and finally to production halt. In 1911 the manufacture in Piotrków was taken over by Poznański, Silberstein and Co. Company from Lodz.42 At that time the construction of a grand, four-storey wool spinning mill started. Erected at 45 Sulejowska Street, four-storey spinning mill was constructed on a rectangular plan. The monumental building was partly cellared. Horizontal character of the front elevation was addition- ally stressed with a building plinth, and cornices (both intermediate and crowning) separated the four rows of windows. On the fourth axis from the left, the tower in the form of avant-corps, with corner cut-offs and a decorative surmounting with a crenellation was found. The windows on the three floors of the factory hall were embraced by a common frame. Ornate pilasters between the ground-floor windows interconnected with archivolts with accentuated tropic, created arcades. In the upper part of the tower an ornamental rosette and an array of small windows placed in the cornice constituted an additional decoration. The corners of the seven- axial side elevations stuck slightly out of the building. The whole structure was covered by a slightly sloped hip roof with two ventilation towers to ventilate the production hall. Social rooms were built on in the northern part of the building. On each storey of the spinning mill there were two production halls well-lit by the rows of window.43 The whole complex was surrounded by a plastered, brick wall with the rhythm provided by pilasters separated by panels and surmounted with triangular coping. The building of the spinning mill formally represents characteristics of the nineteenth-century historicism. Unplastered, brick elevation, regularly arranged windows, rhythmical division of walls, impressive towers with water tanks or staircases fall into industrial architecture.

40 Fabryka na Bugaju, in: Tydzień, 47, 1898, p. 2. 41 NOWAKOWSKI, p. 51. 42 B. WACHOWSKA, Z dziejów ruchu robotniczego w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim w latach 1918–1939, in: ROSIN (ed.), p. 97. 43 E. GWÓŹDŹ, Karta Ewidencyjna Zabytków Architektury i Budownictwa, in: Provincial Office of Monuments Preservation, Delegacy in Piotrków Trybunalski, Piotrków Trybunalski 1998, pp. 1–6.

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In 1899 the construction of the “Raymond and Joel” machine factory was finished.44 Karol Raymond and Adolf Joel were traders from Konin. The factory was in the south of the city, in a district named Tomicczyzna after the bishop Piotr Tomicki.45 The complex designed by Czesław Zam- brzycki, the engineer from Piotrków, consisted of a few single-storey, brick buildings housing the factory of machines, a forge, a joinery, a lathe workshop, assembly plant, a room for a steam engine, a count room, a ferrous foundry and a boiler manufacturing plant with some rooms for i.e. an electric motor and drying room. Not far from the ferrous foundry a chimney was erected, next to which rooms for workers, a warehouse- store with ready-to-sell products, stores with raw materials, a stable and a coach house were located.46 The ceremonial opening of the factory was attended by workers and their families, owners, administration and guests – managers and engineers from industrial plants in Piotrków, Łódź, Sosnowiec, and others. Due to the majority of employed there, the factory was consecrated by a priest. The inaugural speeches emphasized the importance of industrialization for the city and the surrounding area ensuring the livelihood for the local population.47 Around 1900 the factory employed 100 workers and belonged to four biggest factories in Piotrków. One of the best-known Jewish entrepreneurs in Piotrków was Markus Braun – a philanthropist and funder of a Jewish hospital.48 He was an owner of squares, brickworks and in the years 1875–1890 he ran a brewery in his grange on Obrytka (at present the area around Batory Street). In 1881 a nearby distillery was converted into a big steam powered plant. From 1891 the building object functioned as Manufacturing Plant, Steam Brickwords and Rectification of Fiscal Spirit and Steam Distillery. At the same time Braun started the development of the plant.49 The project of

44 Fabryka maszyn i kotłów, produkowanych w oparciu o własną odlewnię żeliwa. Patrz: J. PIETRZAK, Z dziejów przemysłu w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim(od połowy XIX do lat trzydziestych XX), in: ROSIN (ed.), p. 199. 45 He was a founder of many buildings in the area. D. KLEMANOWICZ, Fabryka maszyn, kotłów i odlewnia żelaza „Raymond i Joel” jako przykład aktywności kapitału żydowskiego w przemyśle Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego na przełomie XIX i XX wieku, in: PIASTA (ed.), p. 42. 46 Ibid., p. 43. 47 Poświęcenie fabryki, in: Tydzień, 9, 1900, pp. 2–3. 48 Markus and Salomea Braun Jewish hospital was situated in the north-eastern part of the city (now in Wojska Polskiego street). 49 GŁOWACKI, p. 122.

36 I. Gadowska – M. Milerowska, Jewish Capital as the Factor Shaping the City’s architecture one of the buildings designed by Czesław Zambrzycki presents a neoclassical, three-storey, twelve-axial façade surmounted with a triangular pediment. Characteristic for functional architecture elevation is marked by discreet, reduced decoration composed of pilaster-strips and window lintels accentuated with both semi-circular and segmental arches. The horizontal composition is emphasized with horizontally arranged cornices separating the storeys. In 1917 Markus Braun’s plant became a joint stock proprietorship with the shareholders: Juliusz Pinkus, Marian Splifogel and Filip Konn.50

Summary Jewish people played an important role in the process of industrialization of Piotrków in the second half of the 19th century. Although it is difficult to talk about the dominance of the group, its significance for the development of trade should be emphasized. Supported by their capital intensification of craft and trade, resulted in the development of financial institutions offering credits for the modernization of craft workshops, the start-up of transport companies and manufacturing plants. Until the end of the 19th century, the most developed industry branch in Piotrków was food industry, which translated into a great number of mills, distilleries, breweries, windmills, oil mills, sparkling water manufactories, home manufactories of spirit and vinegar. Sawmills and factories of machines also operated in the city. At the turn of the 20th century, big textile, glass, wood and brick companies appeared. Industrial construction concentrated close to slip roads, in the vicinity of water reservoirs and railway stations. In 1899 the weekly paper Tydzień said: “As we know, the districts of Piotrków, apart from the railroad, develop and populate with increasing speed […] without any plans or building regulations that are applicable in the city centre. However, they indisputably do not differ from the latter one and form with it a coherent whole.”51 At the time of the outbreak of the World War One Piotrków was a medium-sized city with moderately developed industry, but the manu- facturers had the strong competition with nearby Tomaszów Mazowiecki and Lodz on their hands.52 Among the bigger industrial plants with Jewish

50 Ibid. 51 Tydzień, 3, 1899, p. 3. 52 A. PIASTA, Piotrków Trybunalski w czasie pierwszej wojny światowej, Piotrków Trybunalski 2007, p. 55.

37 West Bohemian Historical Review X | 2020 | 1 capital were: Piotrków Manufactory, Rectification of Spirit, the brewery of Bartenbachs, the mill of Horn and Openheim, the factory of threads of Woliński and Bartenbach or the trading companies of Kranc, Kurc, Rotberg and Adler. On the grounds of the census carried out in 1916 on recommendation of the Municipal Office, it is known that among the 94 firms operating in the city, 64 were in Jewish hands. The political situation in 1914 had a negative impact on the economic development of Piotrków, leading to the stagnation and the closing down of 10 out of 14 industrial plants that were in Jewish hands.53

53 B. HAŁACZKIEWICZ, Działalność gospodarcza ludności żydowskiej w Piotrkowie w latach 1914–1939, in: PIASTA (ed.), pp. 25–26.